Historic Benicia Capitol Closes on Weekdays

The centerpiece of Benicia’s historic downtown, the restored 1850s capital building that is now part of a state park, will only be open two days a week for the foreseeable future, a top California official has confirmed.

Mary Pass, supervisor of the state parks department’s Silverado Sector -- which includes the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park – confirmed Monday that the site would only be open Saturdays and Sundays instead of its usual Wednesday through Sunday schedule, effective immediately.

The park includes the capitol, which was California’s seat of government from February 1853 to February 1854, and the Fischer-Hanlon House, the former home of an early Benicia family that was moved next door to the capitol in 1856.

Pass said staffing difficulties were responsible for the reduced schedule at the park and not state budget difficulties, which could lead to further schedule reductions in Benicia and at parks statewide in the near future.

“We have some severe staff shortages that are a result of the past few years,” Pass said, and there is no money to fill vacant positions.

“That’s the way the budget is for state parks,” she said. “It has nothing to do with the governor’s cuts.”

California has a $24 billion budget deficit that must be resolved by June 30, the last day of the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

The state’s new governor, Jerry Brown, has promised a raft of budget cuts that could include many or all of the state’s hundreds of parks – particularly low-attendance, low-revenue parks such as Benicia Capitol. There are 47 historic parks in California.

Brown's office could not be reached for comment.

The moves could have serious consequences for Benicia, which is trying to promote its historic sites as an attraction for tourism.

Benicia was the state’s third capital and Solano County’s first, and still has many buildings that date back to the 1850s and earlier.

The capital building is the only pre-Sacramento capitol still standing, although San Jose has built a replica of the hotel that first housed the state legislature after California joined the United States in 1850.

The county seat moved to Fairfield in 1858.

Pass said the Silverado Sector now has 10 positions open out of the 36 that usually supervise 10 state parks, including Benicia Capitol.

Those parks include Benicia’s other state park, the Benicia State Recreation Area, Robert Louis Stevenson State Park and Bothe Napa Valley State Park in Calistoga and Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park in St. Helena.

The recreation area may be closing to vehicle traffic on Saturday and Sunday, other officials said.

But Pass said necessary staff would be provided for group tours of the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park that have already been scheduled for weekdays.